Oracle lawyer 'confident' about EU review of Sun deal

A lawyer for Oracle said he's "confident" about the company's defense of its planned $7.4 billion purchase of Sun Microsystems following the first day of a European Union hearing on the deal.

Thomas Vinje, a lawyer at Clifford Chance, said customers testified on behalf of Oracle, saying they will benefit from its purchase of Sun. The European Commission has threatened to block the acquisition because of concerns that Oracle, the world's second-largest software maker, might be able to eliminate Sun's MySQL database product as a competitor.

"There is a mountain of consistent evidence favoring every one of our key propositions," Vinje told reporters Thursday in Brussels. "If we're successful on any one of them, the case must go away."

Oracle CEO Larry Ellison said in September that he won't sell MySQL, which is a key part of the Sun acquisition. The commission's delay in approving the deal is costing Santa Clara-based Sun $100 million a month, he said.

When asked if Oracle will offer remedies to address the commission's competition concerns, Vinje said the company is "pretty damn confident."

He said the commission, which will rule on the deal by Jan. 27, has enough time to review Oracle's arguments.

"We provided more evidence via the hearing," he said. "They have a chance to look anew at the evidence."

Oracle rivals SAP, Microsoft, the world's largest software maker, and Monty Program, a Finnish database company whose products are derived from MySQL, will discuss their concerns about the acquisition today at the second day of the closed-door hearing.

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Eben Moglen, a Columbia University law professor and director of the Software Freedom Law Center, and officials from Ericsson, the world's largest maker of wireless network equipment, will present arguments today on behalf of Oracle, Vinje said.

The U.S. Justice Department approved the deal in August and issued a statement supporting Oracle after the EU sent the company a formal complaint.